UPDATED: April 2, 2024, 1:44PM EDT
UPDATE (Apr. 2, 17:40 UTC): Since publishing, at 16:59 UTC, an additional 1,999.999 
BTC
-4.25%
, worth $131.27 million, was moved into the Coinbase Prime hot wallet.
The wallet, which holds over 30,174 bitcoin, initiated a transaction of 0.001 BTC ($65) with a wallet labeled on Arkham as belonging to Coinbase Prime. The transaction currently has one block confirmation. Typically exchanges require multiple confirmations before a transaction is confirmed.
The rest of the funds were sent to a change address — which means they may have effectively stayed in the same place. But if it is a test transaction, further movements could be on the way.
The $2 billion in bitcoin appears to be tied to funds the DOJ confiscated from the now-defunct Silk Road dark web market. At the end of last year, a U.S. appeals court finalized a mandate that formalized the forfeiture of 69,370 of bitcoin and other crypto connected to Silk Road.
In 2020, the DOJ seized and began seeking the official forfeiture of the crypto, at the time valued at over $1 billion.
Coinbase didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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About Author
RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block who covers a wide array of topics including U.S.-based companies, blockchain gaming and NFTs. Formerly covered entertainment at The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. and the creator economy while focusing primarily on technological disruption across media. Previous to that he covered corporate, economic and political news in Brazil while at Bloomberg. RT has interviewed a diverse cast of characters including CEOs, media moguls, top influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug traffickers and convicted criminals. Holds a master’s degree in Digital Sociology.